Improvement in preventing shafts of water-wheels, gates



, H. S. AKI NS. Preventing Shafts of Water-Wheels, Gates, 8L0

-- From Freezing.

No. 154,941 Pa tente-d Sep't.15 ;1 i7-4..

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THE GRAPHIC CO. F'H OTULITH.39S 4| PARK PLACER],

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIoE.

HENRY S. AKI NS, BERKSHIRE, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN PREVENTING SHAFTS 0F WATER-WHEELS, GATES, &c., FROMFREEZING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 154,941, datedSeptember 15, 1874; application filed August 10, 1874.

level, and exposed to freezing, and through which watergate rods orshafts, as well as the shafts of water-wheels, pass, as is the case inmost ordinary saw and other mills; and the nature of my invention willbe apparent as I describe it. V

Figure l is an elevation of my device in a flume, and represents itapplied to a rotating shaft of a'water-wheel gate.

In Fig. 1, a is a hand-wheel, by which the partial rotation of the gaterod or shaft bis made in opening and closing the two-parted gate at atits base. This shaft or gate rod goes through the tube 0, (seen insection,) and which tube is filled, to any degree necessary, withkerosene, oil, or similar fluid which floats on water, and does notcongeal by cold, nor mingle with the water, and thus the gate rod orshaft is prevented from freezing.

The ordinary water-level in the flume is at or near the top of theflume, which flume is represented as made by various planks, f, in thefigure. The front of the bulkhead or flume is represented as made of thetonguedand-grooved planks f and to which the tube 0 is held by themetallic straps c and 0 The shaft b in the tube 0 is supported at thetop by the metallic arm d and at the bottom by the metallic step 11 Thewater-passage c (seen partially in section) leads to the waterwheel. Itis apparent that the gate d may be. changed for a water-wheel withoutviolence to the device of the tube 0 or shaft b, the handwheel a beingreplaced by a pulley, by which to drive the machinery of a mill, or to acogwheel for the same purpose. It is also clear that the shaft b is thesame, substantially as described, when it is not in whole or partiallyrotated, but, by a hand-lever, is simply raised and lowered in the tube0 and its non-freezing fluid, as is the case in my use of liftinggates.The tube a is carried above the water, as far as is necessary, toprevent the overflow of the kerosene-oil or other fluid, and as farbelow the level of the level of the water as the freezing extends, withalso allowance for the variation of the level of the water in the flumeor bulk-head.

Practice with my tubes shows that kerosene and crude petroleum floatlong on the water,

as does oil; that in a bulk-head or flume, for

example, nine feet deep, a tube may be filled two feet deep or more withthese or other like fluids, and is a perfect prevention of the freezing.

The further advantages and uses relating to my invention, for shafts androds in millraces and flumes or bulk-heads, are apparent to thoseskilled in the art to which it appertains.

I claim- 1. The tube 0, fixed immovably about rods or shafts, passingthrough water in raceways, flumes, and bulk-heads, in combination withthe movable rods or shafts b and the nonfreezing fluid in the tube andabout the rods or shafts, as set forth. V

2. The tube 0, about the rod or shaft b, with its lower end below thewater-level line, and its upper end above the water, and filled in partor wholly with kerosene, oil, or other nonfreezing fluid, substantiallyin the manner and for the purpose set forth.

HENRY S. AKINS. Witnesses:

S. J. PARKER, D. TARBELL.

